Social Journey-Sharing App Wins Ford Smart Mobility Game Challenge That Surfaces Fresh Ideas for Future Travel

• Ford names journey-sharing app Jaunt the winner of the Ford Smart
  Mobility Game Challenge – an initiative to use gamification to solve
  real-life problems in urban mobility
• Winner claims €10,000 top prize for app that helps people save money,
  make friends, and alleviate congestion by connecting with others for
  trips by car, bicycle and public transport
• SelfieGo is second with an app that gets commuters on their bikes and
  on foot with a selfie challenge. Third place went to Flux, an app
  designed to alleviate congestion through bringing gamification to
  traffic jams
• Ford Smart Mobility is the company’s plan to be a leader in
  connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience,
  and data and analytics

BARCELONA, Spain–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A new app that could make journeys more efficient, more sociable and
help to alleviate congestion has been announced the winner of the Ford
Smart Mobility Challenge. The creators of journey-sharing app Jaunt were
today presented with the €10,000 top prize at Mobile World Congress, in
Barcelona.

Runner-up SelfieGo, an app designed to make journeys by bicycle and on
foot more appealing, and third-placed Flux, an app designed to alleviate
congestion through the gamification of traffic jams, were awarded a
further €7,500 prize money. Developed with Cologne Game Lab and launched
last year at Gamescom,
the largest interactive games trade fair in Europe, the Ford Smart
Mobility Game Challenge invited developers to create game concepts that
could solve real-life problems in urban mobility.

Gamification has proven to be an effective way to solve real-life
problems in many areas, including the search for a cure for AIDS, and
the learnings from the challenge could lead to innovative solutions and
new approaches to integrating urban transport, as well as encouraging
positive commuter behaviour. Judges for the Ford Smart Mobility
Challenge came from Ford, Cologne Game Lab, USC Games Program, Cologne
International School of Design, and Turn 10 Studios.

“Game developers have an impressive track record in taking new ways of
looking at real-world problems and coming up with fresh solutions, and
that is exactly what we wanted to tap into for the Ford Smart Mobility
Game Challenge,” said Ken Washington, vice president, Ford Research and
Advanced Engineering. “Jaunt is the perfect example of just such a
disruptive approach. Avoiding busy routes by connecting travellers to
share trips could help to reduce congestion through ride-sharing, and
makes lives better by helping people to enjoy journeys more – whether
travelling by car, bicycle, public transport, or on foot.”

Developed by Ilya Zarembsky and Betsy Medvedovsky, in New York, in the
U.S., the Jaunt app enables users to both create journeys and join those
created by others for fastest journeys or more scenic routes. An
interactive map enables users to filter available “jaunts” by transport
mode, location and time, and discover more about their fellow
travellers. Sharing trips, the use of different traffic modes, and
motivating travellers to use alternative routes will help to ease the
pressure on main traffic routes and improve the flow of traffic in city
areas.

SelfieGo, from Scotland, uses a GPS-enabled map that shows the optimal
route to take selfies at a city’s major attractions, and enables users
to share them on social media. The idea is to make travel on foot and by
bicycle more interesting. Flux, from Germany, turns traffic jams into a
game by encouraging drivers to maintain a steady speed using graphics
projected on to the windscreen, helping traffic move more smoothly and
preventing accidents.

Ford
Smart Mobility is the company’s plan to be a leader in connectivity,
mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and data and
analytics. Looking for new and innovative ways to solve global
transportation issues is integral to Ford’s transformation into an
automotive and mobility company, with latest developments
outlined by Ford President and CEO Mark Fields earlier this week.

Ford also has embraced gamification to accelerate the development of
autonomous technologies and to enhance the Ford ownership experience.
Ford’s SmartGauge
technology rewards drivers for fuel- and energy-efficient driving, and
the MyFord
Mobile app enables drivers to remotely manage the charging of their
electric vehicles and shows CO₂ savings as exercise balls or
hot-air balloons. Ford also is using gaming elements in developing
MoDe:Link, the prototype journey-planning app that is part of the Handle
on Mobility electric bike experiment, demonstrated at Mobile World
Congress last year.

About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is a global automotive and mobility company based
in Dearborn, Mich. With about 199,000 employees and 67 plants worldwide,
the company’s core business includes designing, manufacturing, marketing
financing and servicing a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs and
electrified vehicles, as well as Lincoln luxury vehicles. At the same
time, Ford is aggressively pursuing emerging opportunities through Ford
Smart Mobility, the company’s plan to be a leader in connectivity,
mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and data and
analytics. For more information regarding Ford, its products worldwide
or Ford Motor Credit Company, visit www.corporate.ford.com.

Ford of Europe is responsible for producing, selling and
servicing Ford brand vehicles in 50 individual markets and employs
approximately 53,000 employees at its wholly owned facilities and
approximately 68,000 people when joint ventures and unconsolidated
businesses are included. In addition to Ford Motor Credit Company, Ford
Europe operations include Ford Customer Service Division and 24
manufacturing facilities (16 wholly owned or consolidated joint venture
facilities and 8 unconsolidated joint venture facilities). The first
Ford cars were shipped to Europe in 1903 – the same year Ford Motor
Company was founded. European production started in 1911.

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Contacts

Ford of Europe
Volker Eis
+49 (0) 221 901 9096
veis@ford.com